For the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau collected and released data about the extent of Hawaiian language and Hawaiian Pidgin spoken at home in Hawaii.
The 2009-2013 American Community Survey, whose language results were released at the end of 2015, collected data for 350 languages, up from 39 languages previously.
“The #1 and #2 ranked languages spoken at home other than English in Hawaii were Tagalog with over 58,000 speakers and Ilocano with over 54,000 speakers,” reported the Hawaii State Data Center. “These languages were followed by Japanese (over 45,000 speakers); Spanish (over 25,000 speakers); and Hawaiian (over 18,000 speakers). Also newly listed are the languages of Hawaiian Pidgin (335 speakers) and Pidgin (1,275 speakers).”
The Hawaiian language is one of the two official languages of the state of Hawaii. Hawaiian Pidgin or Pidgin, also called Hawaii Creole English, developed from the mix of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and English languages spoken by the diverse workers on Hawaii’s sugar plantations.
The 2009-2013 American Community Survey looked at the counties of Honolulu, Hawaii, and Maui. 326,893 people aged 5 years and over, or 25.4 percent of those surveyed, reported speaking one of 100 languages other than English at home.
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